This is the blog of China defense, where professional analysts and serious defense enthusiasts share findings on a rising military power.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

China's first military air ambulance debuts

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (ChinaMil) --The Military Transportation Institute
under the Logistics Support Department of China's Central Military
Commission (CMC) completed the final month-long environmental
qualification test on China's first air ambulance jointly developed
through military-civilian cooperation on August 19.

As it is increasingly normalized for the PLA troops to carry out
cross-border military operations, such as naval escort mission in the
Gulf of Aden, international peacekeeping and joint military exercises,
it has been an irresistible trend that the PLA should rely on civilian
aviation rescue institutions to provide direct wounded evacuation and
transfer service and on this basis establish the emergency aviation
transport and transfer mechanism for the sick and wounded, said an
official with the Transportation Bureau of the Logistics Support
Department under the CMC.

The Transportation Bureau signed a cooperation agreement with the
Emergency Treatment Center of the Red Cross Society of China, Beijing
Branch in June 2016 on using specialized medical rescue aircraft to
implement transportation and transfer of the sick and wounded of the
PLA.

A special medical aircraft dispatched by the Transportation Bureau
successfully brought two seriously injured members of the Chinese
peacekeeping force to South Sudan back to China after an 18-hour
continuous flight on July 17, 2016.

It was the first wounded soldiers' cross-border evacuation and
transfer operation jointly carried out by the military and civilian
medical departments including the Health Bureau of the Logistics Support
Department under the CMC, the PLA General Hospital and the Emergency
Treatment Center of the Red Cross Society of China, Beijing Branch after
the functioning of the cooperation agreement.

The Transportation Bureau will carry out in-depth feasibility studies
on incorporating the specialized air ambulance into the strategic
projection reserve force system of the PLA.

Friday, October 15, 2010

First Y-8 MedEvac enters service.

As a lesson learned from the recent earthquakes and other natural
disasters, the PLAAF is commissioning a new fleet of Y-8C based MedEvac.
A step that has been long overdue.

Perhaps the PLAAF can
import some the "approved" C-130s and to model them after the USAF's
Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, such as the 379th EAES.

Here are some PR write up from the PLA Daily:

PLA aviation medical rescue system moves one important step forward

(Source: PLA Daily) 2010-10-14

A joint exercise was staged heatedly in an area in northwest China
recently. The reporters saw on the site that a batch of the serious
“wounded” were transferred to a transport aircraft with the logo of the
Red Cross on its tail. According to the head of the Health Department of
the Logistics Department of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army (PLA), this is PLA’s first medical aircraft for
transportation and evacuation. Its service will gain precious time for
saving life of the wounded on battlefield.

Following the
medical workers to enter the cabin of the medical aircraft, the
reporters found that the cabin was divided into ICU area and medical
evacuation area, rows of specially-made multi-level sickbeds were
installed, the medical workers fastened the “wounded” onto the sickbeds
after medical check and classification and then they carried out such
rescue actions as infusion, oxygen inhalation and vital sign monitoring.
Several minutes later, the medical aircraft took off to evacuate the
wounded.

For its advantages in rapid reaction, rapid rescue and
little restriction from operational area, the aviation medical rescue
has become a main means for emergent medical rescue in various countries
of the world. The developed countries and their militaries have already
established their complete aviation medical rescue systems. The PLA
modified a type of transport aircraft of its Air Force into the medical
aircraft with 5 to 7 medical workers on board. It can satisfy the
consecutive medical monitoring and emergent treatment for 2 seriously
wounded patients and accommodate 39 wounded on stretchers and 15 wounded
on seats for medical evacuation.

The experts assessed that
this medical aircraft could basically meet the demand of long-distance
air transportation and medical rescue for batches of the wounded,
symbolizing an important step forward of the PLA in building its
aviation medical rescue system.